UMass Amherst campus could become smoke-free in 2 years

File photo / The RepublicanUniversity of Massachusetts professor Wilmore C. Webley is a proponent of a smoke-free campus.

AMHERST - Smoking on campus at the University of Massachusetts could go the way of the Pontiac if the Faculty Senate adopts a proposal next week to make the campus smoke free beginning July 1, 2013.

UMass spokesman Daniel J. Fitzgibbons said the Faculty Senate Health Council supported a draft proposal March 11. The council will be presenting the report to the Faculty Senate April 7.

The Campus Leadership Council, comprised of the University of Massachusetts Chancellor Robert C. Holub and other top executives approved the proposal Monday, said professor Wilmore C. Webley who has been leading the campaign to make the campus smoke free. He is a member of the health council and presented the report to the leadership council along with Medical Director Alan J. Calhoun.

Webley teachers a class called “Biology of Cancer and AIDS” and has repeatedly conducted smoking surveys among students. He said students are overwhelmingly in support of the proposal as well.

UMass banned smoking in buildings 26 years ago.

“They’ve been talking about (expanding) it for a while,” Fitzgibbons said. The two year gap from adoption to implementation allows time for campus education. “They’re really hoping to do a big educational campaign beforehand.. to encourage smoking cessation program. To get people to embrace the whole issue, to get people to quit,” Fitzgibbons said.

All tobacco products would be banned, he said including smokeless tobacco. This would apply to anyone coming on campus including, staff, faculty, contractors and visitors and include parking lots, athletic events among others.

The policy is similar the policies that have been adopted at more than 466 colleges and universities across the country including at the universities of Florida, Kentucky, Oregon and Michigan.

Webley said UMass Worcester Medical School is smoke free as is Salem State College and Cape Cod Community College.

Webley said surveys taken in class show that just 14 percent of students smoke compared to about 21 percent several years ago.

He said students support the policy change, though, provided there is help for those who still smoke

“This is very exciting for me. If we’re going to train young people to go out and do great things ...we want them to be healthy we want them to be around as long as possible for them to do what we train them to do.”

Biology professor Tobias Baskin and chairman of the Health Council will present the report. He believes the Faculty Senate will approve it. “I think it’s the right time. In 10 years, every campus in the nation will be tobacco free. Do we want to be a leader or a follower,” he said.